1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of treating dichloromethane containing streams of material in order to prevent the dichloromethane from entering the environment and more particularly to a method of converting the dichloromethane into a material that is more readily handled by disposal technique.
Dichloromethane is one of the more common laboratory and industrial solvents particularly useful because of its cost, non-flammability and low boiling point. Major users of dichloromethane recycle it, however, inevitably, some of it is lost to the environment.
2. Description of Related Art
Holah and co-workers in an article entitled "Reactions of sodium N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate with some organic solvents" published in the Canadian Journal of Chemistry, Vol. 48, 1970, reported a reaction between dichloromethane and anhydrous sodium N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate. This reaction was carried out under strictly anhydrous and oxygen free conditions. For this reason, the reaction as disclosed is not suitable to effectively remove dichloromethane from streams in which it is sued as a solvent.